Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson reflected on his longtime friendship with Junior, Ryan Blaney joked about how mad JR Nation was when he accidentally spun Earnhardt this season and Brad Keselowski was convinced he was being Punk'D the first time Earnhardt called him.

Recalling the voice message - in which Junior just wanted to congratulate him - Keselowski said:

"When he called me for the first time to come drive for him, and he left a message and just said, 'Hey, it's Dale Jr. Just want you to know I thought you did a great job, and I'd really like to hire you for my team. Call me back.'

"And I wanted to believe it was Dale Jr., but I didn't know. Maybe I was being Punk'D. You know, at that time, Ashton Kutcher was pretty famous and he had that show, and (I) could have been being Punk'D. Then when we did talk, we talked for probably 10 minutes, and he tried to tell my why his car and team was the best team, and I wasn't really listening to what he was saying. I was just thinking, 'Wow, Dale Jr. called me."